The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-01-15
THE GUNSIGHT MINES.
THREE MEN FOUND THEM AFTER
CROSSING DEATH VALLEY.

Before the MOuntaihs were Nehtheus
Gold Discovered in Abundance.
There are now in this city three men who
have recently crossed and recrossed the
famous Death valley Of southern California,
and who have succeeded in solving mine
mystery which has bailled the most daring
and skillful prospectors for many years. The
Gunsight placers were located In 40, but were
afterward lost and, though repeated attempts
have been made to find them. most OF the
men engaged in the effort have persisted.
About six weeks ago when A. +. Judson,
A. u. Spring and Barney Carter announced
that they were going after the Gunsight
trail, their friends tried to dissuade them,
and chance acquaintance laughingly bade
them good-by forever. No one ever expected
to see them again, and when they set out
confidently on their mission they were given
up as dead men might have been. So many
such expeditions had left this and other
towns only to meet death in its most horrible
forms that this one was regarded as es-
pecially foohardy.
About n week ago the three men returned.
They came in by rail, ragged emaciated and
feeble and ono of them, Carter, sick abed.
But MI were enthusiastic over their achieve
ments. and each had in his rockets nuggets
to prove his assertion that the Gunsight mine
had been fonnd. The story Of their trip
would lie incredible were they not here as
living witnesses to its truth their bodies
bearing all too plainly the proofs of the suf-
feringS which they have undergone.
THROUGH DEATH VALLEY.
Knowing that the discoveries Of the Gun
sight mines crossed the Death valley, these
advcrturcrs sought, if possible, 20 make the
same trail Once through the Mojave desert,
they soon came 10 the dazzling white sandy
plain. where no lie can exist Almost at the
first step they were Frustrated 10y the fierce
heat from above and below. Their feet
swollcd 50 that they were compelled to rip
open their shoes. and the goggles which they
hal prepared were but feeble protection for
their eyes.
The men had two wagons, each drawn by
two horses, aud in these vehicles they carried
water in barrels and other supplies After
an hour or two of the most painful locomo-
ton, the heat becoming more intolerahlc at
every step, the party paused few minutes
for rest and rcfreshment, The poor beasts
fairly groancd IN their agony, and the men
themselves did not dare look ut each other
lest they would read in each others eyes the
despair which all knew was settling upon
them. On every hand they beheld the
whitened skeletons of men of horses, and OF
burros. In some places they found the re-
mains Of what appeared TO have been an ex-
pcdition-ruinel vehicles, with the skeletons
Of horses and men lying about. Vultures
swooped down upon them with angry cries,
and other birds Of prey circled high above
their heads, following them as they pro-
crossed.
When night came they followed the north
star, one man trying to sleep while the others
drove AT daybrcak there was nothing to
relieve the eye All around them was the
gleamering sand: overhead the brassy sky,
and far away the rocky sides of mountains on
which no vegetable life was ever found.
YEARLY they pressed on, confident that the
worst was over, but when almost i'll sight OF
the east range of the Amargosas, TO which
they were bound the blazing heat played
chem n merciless prank.
The scorching which men and beasts were
enduring with reasonable fortitude was too
much for the water barrels and their wagons
The wood OF which they were made shrank
and shriveled until they fell to pieces, first
the wagons and then the barrels. All attempts
10 keep them together were useless. With the
water cone the party was well nigh in despair,
but whcl the wagons. too, fell to pieces there
was minute when all recognized the proba-
bilty that another expedition was to be added
10 the long list of those which had gone into
that abode of death never TO be heard OF
again.
A LUCKY DISCOVERY.